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Prayer That Held The Constitution Together · The American Soul: America's Christian Heritage

• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: Psalm thirty-five Starting with verse one Plead my cause, O Lord, with them that strive with me, fight against them that fight against me.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: Take hold of shield and buckler, and stand up for mine help.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: Draw out also the spear and stop the way against them that persecute me.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: Hey folks, this is Jesse Coke, back with another episode of America's Christian Heritage Podcast.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_01: I hope y'all are doing well.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_01: Wherever y'all are, whatever part of the day you're in, I sure do appreciate you joining me, giving me a little of your time and attention, a little piece of your day.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: I'll try and use it wisely.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: For those of y'all who continue to pray, for me and for the podcast, thank you most of all for those of y'all in the writing, for those of y'all who have shared and left reviews of the two podcasts, America's Soul, American Souls podcast, and America and Christian Heritage, thank you.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: And for those of y'all who continue to uh who have checked out the countryside book series and shared it, left reviews, thank you for that as well.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: I'm very grateful for that.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: Father, thank you for today.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: Even when we don't see the things to be grateful for, Father, even when we lack trust, lack faith, when we go our own way.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: When we feel like you're not there, Father.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: When we're going through trials and tribulations.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Help us to remember that you are there, that you will never leave us nor forsake us.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: That we can trust in you to get us safely home.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: Bring our souls safely home to you and your son.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: Help us to overcome our unbelief.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: We do believe, Father.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_01: Be with those listening to the podcast.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: Comfort them, give them wisdom, courage, and a strong faith.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: Help the gospel of your son Jesus Christ to spread across our land here in America and around the world.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Be with our families, bless our marriages.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Be with our children for those of us who have them.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: Forgive us our sins and guide our stuff.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: Be with our leaders in the pulpit and the state.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_01: Help us to do your will above all things.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: And guide my word to your Father in your Son's name we pray.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: Couple things, folks, before we get into today.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: People matter.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: Way more than things.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_01: Don't forget that.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: Focus on the people.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: And remember too, when you're going through trials and tribulations.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: As a Christian, as somebody trying to follow the principles of Christ, that's a pretty good indication that you're doing something right.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you weren't a threat to the devil, he wouldn't care.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_01: So we're going to get into two prayers today, if we have time.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: A prayer by Benjamin Franklin, first off, that saved the Constitutional Convention.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_01: We don't get taught that very often today.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_01: And then we're going to get into another prayer that actually occurred before that, at the beginning of the Continental Congress.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: But this first prayer, just a little bit of background, the Constitutional Convention was not going well.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: And they'd been at it for weeks.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_01: The divisions were intense.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: And they weren't, they just weren't making any progress.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: And some of them had talked of leaving.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: I think maybe you need to double check this.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: I don't have it in front of me right now.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: I think a couple of them had already started to leave.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: This was in June, late June of 1787.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: And it was at this point where Franklin, also interesting to note, remember that he's supposedly a deist, stood up and addressed the Constitutional Convention.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: And it's really important for us to remember that this is the Constitutional Convention, that these are the men that were actually there.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: Because you hear so often today that we're a secular nation, a deist nation, maybe even an atheist pagan nation, that our founders didn't want anything to do with Jesus Christ publicly.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: But when you look at the delegates of the Constitutional Convention, when you look at the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: And in fact, that just jogged my brain housing group.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: I should have had this already.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: Out of the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention, the people that actually put this thing together at the foundation of our nation, there were 28 Episcopals, Episcopalians, eight Presbyterians, seven Congregationalists, two Lutherans, two Dutch Reform, two Methodists, two Roman Catholics, one unknown, and three supposedly deists.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: 93% were members of Christian churches.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: And the other 7% were still looking at the world through the frame of the Bible.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: So as the Constitutional Convention was falling apart, Benjamin Franklin stood up in late June of 1787 and gave this address.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: Mr.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: President, the small progress we have made after four or five weeks' close attendance and continual reasonings with each other, our different sentiments on almost every question, several of the last producing as many no's as eyes, is, methinks, a melancholy proof of the imperfection of human understanding.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: We indeed seem to feel our own want of political wisdom, since we have been running around about it in search of.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: We have gone back to ancient history for models of government and examined the different forms of those republics, which having been formed with the seeds of their own dissolution now no longer exist.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: And we have viewed modern states all around Europe, but find none of their constitutions suitable to our circumstances.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: In this situation of this assembly groping, as it were, in the dark to find political truth, and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of Lights to illuminate our understandings?
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: In the beginning of the contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for divine protection.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: Our prayers, sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending providence in our favor.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: To that kind Providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: And we have now forgotten that powerful friend, and have we now forgotten that powerful friend?
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: Or do we imagine that we no longer need his assistance?
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: I have lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth, that God governs in the affairs of men.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without his aid?
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: We have been assured, sir, in the sacred writings that except the Lord builds the house they labor in vain that build it.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_01: I firmly believe this.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I also believe that without his concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: We shall be divided by our little partial local interests.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: Our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and a byword down to future age.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: And what is worse, mankind may hereafter from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing governments by human wisdom, and leave it to chance, war, and conquest.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: I therefore beg leave to move, that henceforth prayers imploring the assistance of heaven and its blessings and our deliberations be held in this assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate in that service.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: You look at some of the founding fathers' quotes after the Constitution was actually completed.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: Alexander Hamilton.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: James Madison.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_01: It is impossible for the man of pious reflection not to perceive in it the finger of that almighty hand which has been so frequently and signally extended to our relief in the critical stages of the revolution.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_01: Benjamin Franklin again also.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yet I can hardly conceive a transaction of such momentous importance to the welfare of millions now existing, and to exist in the posterity of a great nation, should be suffered to pass without being in some degree influenced, guided, and governed by that omnipotent, omnipresent, and beneficent ruler in whom all inferior spirits live and move and have their being.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: Each of these, by the way, reflects directly some scripture or other.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: That's one of the things, you know, Franklin himself talked about the fact that when he went overseas and gave talks and speeches in France and England, he often had to describe, discuss the Bible verses that he used.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: But in America, he didn't because people knew the Bible so well.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: They knew the references already.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: George Washington, who was president of the Constitutional Convention, as to my sentiments with respect to the merits of the new Constitution, I will disclose them without reserve.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: It appears to me, then, little short of a miracle, that the delegates from so many different states should unite in forming a system of national government.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_01: Benjamin Rush.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: I do not believe that the Constitution was the offspring of inspiration, but I am as perfectly satisfied that the union of the states in its form and adoption is as much the work of a divine providence as any of the miracles recorded in the Old and New Testament were the effects of a divine power.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: What are they saying, especially in those last two?
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: They're saying, look, we're not trying to tell you that the Constitution is equal to the books in the Bible that were inspired by God, but we're telling you that there's no way that this Constitution was agreed upon without God being involved.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: God the Father of Jesus Christ, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: Our founders, at least, thought that God's hand, the finger of God, was all over the formation of our government specifically, not just the nation, but our our laws.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: Civics, right?
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: And if we don't acknowledge that today, that's why we're in the mess that we're in today is because we have refused to acknowledge God Almighty, to be grateful for his blessings, to humbly repent before him of our sins and turn back to him.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I I say again, if the best thing that you can possibly do to help save America today is to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: There are other things that you can do, but the very best thing that we can do today is to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: So that was the Constitutional Convention.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: But before that, you go back to the first Continental Congress the opening, the very beginning in Carpenter's Hall in Philadelphia.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: September 7, 1774.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: When our founders thought that Boston was being attacked already.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: And they called in Reverend Jacob Duches, he was the pastor at Christ Church in Philadelphia, to open in prayer.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: And he read Psalm 35, which was the psalm for that day in the Book of Common Prayer.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: And we'll read that at the end of this if we if we have time left.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: But then he he offered this extemporaneous prayer in addition to that.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: And it's again important, just like with the last one, to remember that Franklin was standing up in the Constitutional Convention and uh just like on the America's American Soul Podcast, we have talked about often these election day sermons that were given at the beginning of our nation.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: So these pastors would come in and they would preach directly to a political body.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: The legislature in Connecticut or Massachusetts, right?
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's important to remember that both of these prayers were given to a political body publicly.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_01: Not this is not a private gathering.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: This is a political body turning to God in prayer.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: And only the one true God, the Father of Jesus Christ, not Islam, not Buddha, not Hinduism, or anything else.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_01: So, Reverend Duches, this was his extemporaneous prayer.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: O Lord, our Heavenly Father, High and Mighty King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who dost from thy throne behold all the dwellers on earth, and reignest with power supreme and uncontrolled over all the kingdoms, empires, and governments.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: Look down in mercy, we beseech thee, on these are American states, who have fled to thee from the rod of the oppressor, and thrown themselves on thy gracious protection, desiring to be henceforth dependent only on thee.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: To thee have they appealed for the righteousness of their cause?
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: To thee do they now look up for that content continuance and support which thou alone canst give.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: Take them, therefore, Heavenly Father, under thy nurturing care, give them wisdom and counsel and valor in the field, defeat the malicious designs of our cruel adversaries, convince them of the unrighteousness of their cause, and if they persist in their sanguinary purposes of our own unerring justice, sounding in their hearts, constrain them to drop the weapons of war from their unnerved hands in the day of battle.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: Be thou present, O God of wisdom, and direct the counsels of this honorable assembly, enable them to settle things on the best and surest foundation, that the scene of blood may be speedily closed, that order, harmony, and peace may be effectually restored, and truth and justice, religion and piety prevail and flourish amongst the people.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: Preserve the health of their bodies and vigor of their minds, shower down on them and the millions they here represent such temporal blessings as thou seest expedient for them in this world, and crown them with everlasting glory in the world to come.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: All this we ask in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ, thy Son and our Savior.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: Again, where are we turning as a nation politically?
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_01: Publicly.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_01: We're turning to God, the Father of Jesus Christ, His Son, and the Holy Spirit.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: When you look at the fact that this was, that this includes both the first Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention, right?
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_01: Just those two things alone wipe out the argument that our founders didn't want God and Jesus Christ involved in our courtrooms and our constitutions and our military, law enforcement, education.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_01: It defies logic to have a group of men turn together publicly in prayer to God and then assume that they would turn right back around and say, you know what, we don't want God involved.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: So we have time.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: So we're gonna read through Psalm 35 because that's what Reverend Duche, that's what he started, right?
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: He read Psalm 35 before he went into that prayer.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: And this obviously.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: It was not the version that he read.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm gonna read the New Living Translation just because it's a little simpler for us today, right?
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: For a lot of us at least.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: Psalm 35.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: O Lord, oppose those who oppose me.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: Fight those who fight against me.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: Put on your armor and take up your shield.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: Prepare for battle and come to my aid.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: Lift up your spear and javelin against those who pursue me.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: Let me hear you say, I will give you victory.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: Bring shame and disgrace on those trying to kill me.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: Turn them back and humiliate those who want to harm me.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: Blow them away like chaff in the wind, a wind sent by the angel of the Lord.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: Make their path dark and slippery, with the angel of the Lord pursuing them.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: I did them no wrong, but they laid a trap for me.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_01: I did them no wrong, but they dug a pit to catch me.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_01: So let the sudden ruin come upon them.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: Let them be caught in the trap they set for me.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_01: Let them be destroyed in the pit they dug for me.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_01: Then I will rejoice in the Lord.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: I will be glad because he rescues me.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: With every bone in my body I will praise him.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_01: Lord, who can compare with you?
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: Who else rescues the helpless from the strong?
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: Who else protects the helpless and poor from those who rob them?
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_01: Malicious witnesses testify against me.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_01: They accuse me of crimes I know nothing about.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: They repay me evil for good.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_01: I am sick with despair.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yet when they were ill, I grieved for them.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_01: I denied myself by fasting fasting for them, but my prayers return unanswered.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: I was sad as though they were my friends or family, as if I were grieving for my own mother.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: But they are glad now that I am in trouble.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_01: They gleefully join together against me.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_01: I am attacked by people I don't even know.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_01: They slander me constantly, they mock me and call me names, they snarl at me.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_01: How long, O Lord, will you look on and do nothing?
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: Rescue me from their fierce attacks.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_01: Protect my life from these lions.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: Then I will thank you in front of the great assembly, I will praise you before all the people.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_01: Don't let my treacherous enemies rejoice over my defeat.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: Don't let those who hate me without cause gloat over my sorrow.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: They don't talk of peace, they plot against innocent people who mind their own business.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: They shout, Aha, aha, with our own eyes we saw him do it.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: O Lord, you know all about this.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_01: Do not stay silent.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: Do not abandon me now, O Lord.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: Wake up, rise to my defense, take up my case, my God and my Lord.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: Declare me not guilty, O Lord my God, for you give justice.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: Don't let my enemies laugh about me and my troubles.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_01: Don't let them say, Look, we got what we wanted.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_01: Now we will eat him alive.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_01: May those who rejoice at my troubles be humiliated and disgraced.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_01: May those who triumph over me be covered with shame and dishonor.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: But give great joy to those who came to my defense.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: Let them continually say, Great is the Lord who delights in blessing his servant with peace.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: Then I will proclaim your justice, and I will praise you all day long.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_01: The descriptions of the effects that that had on the assembly at the first Continental Congress are pretty impressive.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: And you can see why you know they mistakenly, they didn't know at that time, but they thought Boston was being bombed by the British, attacked.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so this psalm and that prayer from Reverend Duches had an astounding effect on these men.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_01: We're not going to read through those descriptions today.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe we'll come back to this at some point down the road.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_01: But just these little two pieces of history.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_01: And you have to wonder how many how many of our graduating seniors today in high school?
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_01: How many of our eighth graders?
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_01: How many of our, you know, supposedly really well-educated collegiate graduates even know about these two prayers that took place at pivotal moments in the creation of our nation and our government that we specifically turn to God the Father of Jesus Christ.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_01: And if, you know, you think critically about it for long enough, you kind of have to wonder why.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: Why haven't we been teaching this?
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_01: I sure do appreciate y'all joining me here.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: Hope y'all are getting to join us over on the American Soul Podcast.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_01: Hope you've gotten to check out the countryside book series if you like uh middle grade fiction fantasy, kind of like Narni and the Hobbit.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_01: And thank you again for your prayers.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_01: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_01: Thy kingdom come, thou will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_01: Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: And lead us not to temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_01: God bless y'all.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_01: God bless your families, your marriages if you're married, your kids, if you have them, your nation, wherever you are, around the world, listen.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: God bless America.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_01: We'll talk to you all again real soon, folks.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: Looking forward to it.